Identity
by sss979
Summary: Short piece based on season 2 of new toon. Who the ... is Shredder anyways!


bcenterIDENTITY  
  
pThis is in response to the BULLSHIT about Shredder being an Utrom. It is the only way that I can, in good conscience, continue to watch this series as I am personally rather offended by the whole thing. So in light of today's episode, I have written the scene following the end of the ep, where "Shredder the alien" is crushed./center/b  
  
p"Aaaaraaagh!"   
  
pThe outburst came accompanied by a fist through the wall. With narrowed eyes, I watched as the well-built and very angry man attacked an invisible opponent. No, not invisible. Just inanimate. I had heard the news he had delivered, but I did not feel the same blind rage. There was anger, that was sure. But my own anger was different, more directed, more knowledgeable about what, exactly, I was angry iat/i. His seemed to be an outburst aimed at the world in general.   
  
pAnd oh how cruel a world it was. A world that had taken his master. A world that had robbed him of his stability. A world that had decided to deal him a difficult hand just to see how he would play it. I felt sympathy. Earnest sympathy. In many ways, I was in that exact same place. I was just as bewildered by the death of my master, of one who had thought he could never die. Of one who had assured me, from the time I was old enough to walk, that if I only obeyed and followed in the path he set for me, that I would live my entire life happy.   
  
pYes, I felt loss. I felt it deep inside of me, so much deeper than Hun, and yet... I could not empathize with him. He had lost his master. I felt as if I had lost a part of myself. Perhaps the istronger /ipart of myself. Now, with him gone, the clan felt left to combine its efforts, to struggle to survive without him. With him gone, I felt the weight of responsibility decend on my shoulders and nearly crush me.   
  
pI knew, however, the danger of these emotions. I had been taught well. My master and teacher was gone, but I knew I would have to mourn him in silence if at all. At any rate, I could not allow my emotions to overcome me. I could ill afford such distraction at a time like this.  
  
pIn a way, I had always known that it would happen, sooner or later. Perhaps not in my lifetime, perhaps not in my successors, or his after him. But some day, the Shredder would meet his end. One only lived so long, after all. He had not, of course, felt that his life would ever truly be endangered while on this planet. He was an advanced species, after all; so much higher than us humans. He had lived eight hundred years, surely he would live another eight hundred. Or perhaps another eight thousand. I had never questioned the life expectancy of his species...  
  
pBut he was gone now, taken abruptly without so much as a farewell. The cocky bastard had never even thought to consider that he may not come back from this kamakaze mission of his. He flew blindly into his battles, guided by the wisdom eight hundred years had given him, but so little discipline of his own. He was blind to everything outside of the realm of his mission: to destroy his kind and to manipulate them to gain power and control. Tunnel vision was, without doubt, what had cost him his life. I was sure of it.  
  
pOf course, I didn't know the details of what had happened. I knew only that he was dead, and that there was no chance that he was alive. To hear such a statement come from Hun, who knew of the Shredder's origin better than most, meant to me that it was likely to be true. To see the anger that the declaration had preceeded only served to more firmly embed it inside of my soul.  
  
pAnd then there was Baxter Stockman, standing at a distance and gloating. I had never cared for him much, and I found that I cared even less for him now. There was something very disturbing to begin with about that... head that had once been a man. To see him so satisfied now sparked a flicker of anger in my chest.   
  
pNot that I felt Stockman had ever truly gotten away with anything. My master had been a sadistic individual, and Stockman's current state spoke as a testimonial to that fact. But I had never felt sympathy for the man. He'd pushed too far, and now he faced the consequences of his actions. Every so often, one came to the point in his life where he crossed the line, screwed over the wrong man. Or in this case, it had not been a man; it had been the Shredder.   
  
pBut Stockman had not known that. He had known only what he had seen with his eyes. To his eyes, the Shredder had been a man of great strength and power, but one who could be conquered with enough science and logic. Relying on that assumption alone, Stockman had pushed too far. He had made a fatal mistake, and his death now was long and drawn out. Sadistic, but most effective.  
  
pI wondered when, exactly, he ihad /ifound out that my master was not human. Perhaps it was when the Shredder had outfitted him with a working "body", and enabled him to live. And still, the fool was gloating over the death of the one who had handed him his salvation. Still, he was smirking at Hun, who himself had only had random details of my master's condition. True, he had not been human. But just how inhuman had he ibeen/i? Still, neither of them knew the answer to that question.  
  
pI did.  
  
pI knew how intricate a plan the Shredder had implimented long before either of them had been born. Long before I myself was born, when he established his clan, so long ago in Japan. I knew what was to happen next, even if I had not been able to anticipate it.  
  
pHun was calming. The Shredder's elite guard stood nearby, obediently silent. They spoke only when spoken to by an authoritative figure, and the only authority they had previously had was the Shredder. Now he was gone, and they were without direction. The clan was without a leader, a chain of command. Or so they thought.   
  
pSo Hun thought, as well, as he composed himself and determined that now, he would step into his role as the clan's leader. It was what he'd been trained for, after all. Surely he had been prepared and conditioned for years in order to accept this position. Ever since I had pulled him off of the streets as a punk teenager and brought him here to my master, he had worked hard so that he would be ready when his time came.  
  
pFool. He had not even had the insight to realize who he was speaking to and when. He spoke to my master as he spoke to me. They all did, with no knowledge of the difference between the two. And sadly, they would never know the difference. They would forever be ignorant and stupid.  
  
p"iThey /idid this," he growled. "They itook /iour master from us! And they will ipay/i! Dearly!"  
  
pMy eyes narrowed. He spoke like a man, but he thought like a child. If they had defeated my master, regardless of the circumstances, they were formidable opponents indeed. The battle that had been fought throughout the past milleneum had faded with the departure (or death, it mattered little to me) of the Council. Now a inew /ibattle lay before us, a conflict between clans instead of races. And it was not one that we would win easily. Not with the trouble they had already caused us. They would pay dearly, yes. But the cost of victory would fill the streets with the blood of our people. iMy /ipeople. I could not fool myself into believing anything different. I may have not worn Shredder's armor to fight them, but I ihad /icrossed swords with their leader, and I knew the dangers they posed.   
  
pI stood very still, in the midst of a hundred ininjas/i, and watched. When I had been anonymously summoned here, this was certainly not the message I had expected to hear. But now that it had reached my ears, I knew what I must do. "We will idestroy /ithese mutant freaks!" Hun bellowed, as if he were encouraging himself through the use of his own words.  
  
p"Indeed we will."   
  
pI had spoken. And moreover, I had spoken out of turn. Hun's eyes turned to me, blazing in anger. "And we will do it carefully lest they destroy us in the process," I continued coldly.  
  
pHun growled. "Who the ihell /iare you?" He turned to face me head-on, and those around me, dressed just as I was, stepped back, not obstructing his path. He looked ready to attack, ready to battle with me. Me, a lower ranked, anonymous ininja/i. But no. No more. No longer would I hide under this mask as my master led us into battle. It was time to take a new mantle.  
  
pI stepped forward, meeting him without the slightest hint of hesitation. A low growl escaped his throat as he reached for his weapon, acknowledging my challenge. Whether he consciously intended to attack or it was done out of anger and frustration, I wasn't sure. Either way, it mattered very little. He was good, but I was better. I caught the weapon between my palms as it came down, and held it fast.   
  
pHis eyes widened. The entire room seemed to still, and we stared at each other for a lingering moment. Finally, his weapon lowered, and I stared at him intently as I reached up, and pulled the hood off of my head, exposing my face.  
  
pThere was a collective gasp, and every knee bowed throughout the room. Hun's weapon fell to his side as he bowed himself low. "Master Saki..."   
  
pHe was stunned, confused. Why should I be here, when the Shredder had died? Why should I be standing in the midst of the other ininja/i. The truth he would never know. The truth that the Shredder, and Oroku Saki, had never been one and the same.   
  
pNo, my master had never expected to die. But he had prepared. Through centuries of operation as Shredder, the leader of the foot, his other half had been a hundred different men. Each of them had been trained from birth by a man with centuries of experience behind him. Each of them, including myself, was there as a more human and tangeable side to his otherwise inhuman self.   
  
pNow that the Shredder was gone, it was up to his other half, his ihuman /icounterpart, to take his place. And if I had my way, the clan would never know any more difference between the two than they had for the past fifteen years...  
  
pI turned to the crowd, eyes narrowed. "Does anyone else have any plans they would like to share with me?" Heads bowed low. No sound was made. I turned back to Hun and glanced briefly at the mechanical spider that had backed itself into the corner. "Very well. You all are dismissed."  
  
pThey were gone in a flash, left to come to their own conclusions on "my" survival of what had been certain death. Oroku Saki, the Shredder, was back, alive and well. And what they didn't know about the state of my master would not harm them... 


End file.
